During the upcoming summit of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in The Hague on 24-25 June, NATO’s 32 member states are expected to increase their overall military spending target to 5 per cent of their Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The 5 per cent target is a huge increase from the previous 2 per cent NATO states had agreed on. At a recent event organised by Chatham House, NATO’s Secretary-General Mark Rutte said it’s not up to him to decide how countries pay the bill. He argued, for example, that the United Kingdom could opt not to meet the new target and still have National Health Service and other public services but warned, “you better learn to speak Russian.”
The call for NATO’s increased military expenditure comes at a time when the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) shows the world’s military expenditure has already reached $2718 billion —the highest global level ever recorded. Compared to 2023, military expenditure increased 9.4 per cent in 2024, making it the highest year-on-year rise since the end of the Cold War. States that previously were able to afford to have both high military expenditure and high social spending, as was the case for many NATO countries, are now struggling with strained public finances while trying to keep up with the extreme levels of spiraling armament efforts.
The context for this rising spending is bleak and violent. Nuclear-armed states are engaged in wars, including Russia’s aggression and full-scale invasion of Ukraine; escalating tensions and overt conflict between India and Pakistan; Isreal’s genocide against Palestinians and bombings of Lebanon, Iran, Syria and Yemen, which is supported by several Western states. Meanwhile, international law is under attack, with violations ongoing of the Genocide Conventions, Arms Trade Treaty, international humanitarian law, international human rights law and the UN Charter. Some states are indicating their intention to or consideration of withdrawing from international treaties such as the Mine Ban Treaty, and most recently Iran considering leaving the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty amid Israel’s attacks. In this context, increased global military spending is asking to pouring gasoline on fire rather than “stabilising” “geopolitical security” through mythical “deterrence” strategies, as so many states claim.
In 2024, world military expenditure increased for the tenth consecutive year. That means we’ve seen an increase every year since UN member states committed to increase their efforts to address socioeconomic injustice by adopting the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in 2015. This spending directly undermines the achievement of the SDGs.
Since its foundation in 1915, WILPF has opposed arms racing and highlighted the devastating impact of military expenditure on peace and planet, explaining how it undercuts or impedes development, not least by diverting funds from health, wellbeing, infrastructure, food and water supplies, among others. WILPF has highlighted how military activities often threaten human health through the toxic legacy of weapon production, leading to environmental contamination. For example, how explosive remnants of war make land dangerous to farm or live on, which hampers achievement of socioeconomic rights and limits access to education, food security and safe housing. These weapons can therefore delay return and reconstruction processes.
Last year, the UN Secretary-General concluded that only 17 per cent of the SDG targets were on track to be achieved. Half the targets showed minimal or moderate progress, and the progress for over a third of the targets has stalled or regressed. With only five years left to achieve the SDGs, it is urgent to reverse this trend.
Military expenditure can be seen as the practical application of the philosophy of militarism. That philosophy rests on the idea that power and domination is ensured through the willingness and capacity to use force and violence. As WILPF members Ray Acheson and Madeleine Rees have described, the thinking behind militarised security “not only undermines disarmament and reductions in military spending, but also perpetuates a social acceptance of human beings intentionally put in harm’s way, viewed within an abstract calculus of casualty figures.” Often this is done to justify ever-increasing war profiteering.
Military expenditure facilitates gender-based violence and sexual violence in conflict, destabilises communities, exacerbates power imbalances, and reinforces already existing patriarchal structures. The gendered impacts of military spending can also be seen in the way that decreasing social spending often has a negative impact on gender equality, as social spending largely benefits women and marginalised groups who are disproportionally reliant on social programmes.
In WILPF’s first resolution in 1915, the organisation identified “the private profits accruing from the great armament factories” as “a powerful hindrance to the abolition of war.” The discussion on military expenditure is often filled with myths that hinder abolition of war. Researcher Susan Jackson illustrateshow producers of large conventional weapons systems “sell” the idea of national security as military security, framing the military as a “good, natural, and necessary” part of society. This assumption legitimises national security, defined as military security, and makes it difficult to question the military and its role in national security.
In season two of WILPF’s podcast Think & Resist: Conversations about Feminism and Peace we explore the gendered aspects of military expenditure and debunk some of these common myths together with Taylor Barnes (Inkstick), Adem Elveren (Fitchburg State University), Malin Nilsson (WILPF Sweden) and Nan Tian (SIPRI). For example, while a common myth often used to legitimise military expenditure is that the military-industrial complex creates and retains jobs, contributing to economic growth, studies have shown that the weapon industry creates fewer jobs per dollar than the median manufacturing industry.
In the Pact for the Future, adopted by the UN General Assembly in September 2024, member states requested the UN Secretary-General to provide an analysis on the impact of the global increase in military expenditure on the SDGs. WILPF contributed with a submission to the report, which will be launched in the fall. In our submission, we provided a list of sources and recommendations on what can be done to reverse this trend. For example, WILPF:
You will find our submission, the podcast and other resources related to military expenditure on WILPF’s website, where we have gathered previous work and useful sources. As our 110 years old history shows, there is a lot that can be done to reverse the trend of military expenditure.
This week, WILPF members will follow this tradition by taking the streets in The Hague to urge states to stop the military expenditure and #movethemoney.
Matt Mahmoudi (he/him) is a lecturer, researcher, and organizer. He’s been leading the “Ban the Scan” campaign, Amnesty International’s research and advocacy efforts on banning facial recognition technologies and exposing their uses against racialized communities, from New York City to the occupied Palestinian territories.
Berit Aasen is a sociologist by training and has worked at the OsloMet Metropolitan University on Oslo. She has 40 years of experience in research and consultancy in development studies, including women, peace, and security, and in later years in asylum and refugee studies. Berit Aasen joined WILPF Norway five years ago. She is an alternate member of the National Board of WILPF Norway, and representing WILPF Norway in the UN Association of Norway, the Norwegian 1325 network and the Norwegian Women’s Lobby. Berit Aasen has been active in the WILPF European Liaison group and is committed to strengthening WILPF sections and membership both in Europe and relations across continents.
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Prior to being elected Vice-President, Melissa Torres was the WILPF US International Board Member from 2015 to 2018. Melissa joined WILPF in 2011 when she was selected as a Delegate to the Commission on the Status of Women as part of the WILPF US’ Practicum in Advocacy Programme at the United Nations, which she later led. She holds a PhD in Social Work and is a professor and Global Health Scholar at Baylor College of Medicine and research lead at BCM Anti-Human Trafficking Program. Of Mexican descent and a native of the US/Mexico border, Melissa is mostly concerned with the protection of displaced Latinxs in the Americas. Her work includes training, research, and service provision with the American Red Cross, the National Human Trafficking Training and Technical Assistance Centre, and refugee resettlement programs in the U.S. Some of her goals as Vice-President are to highlight intersectionality and increase diversity by fostering inclusive spaces for mentorship and leadership. She also contributes to WILPF’s emerging work on the topic of displacement and migration.
Jamila Afghani is the President of WILPF Afghanistan which she started in 2015. She is also an active member and founder of several organisations including the Noor Educational and Capacity Development Organisation (NECDO). Elected in 2018 as South Asia Regional Representative to WILPF’s International Board, WILPF benefits from Jamila’s work experience in education, migration, gender, including gender-based violence and democratic governance in post-conflict and transitional countries.
Sylvie Jacqueline NDONGMO is a human rights and peace leader with over 27 years experience including ten within WILPF. She has a multi-disciplinary background with a track record of multiple socio-economic development projects implemented to improve policies, practices and peace-oriented actions. Sylvie is the founder of WILPF Cameroon and was the Section’s president until 2022. She co-coordinated the African Working Group before her election as Africa Representative to WILPF’s International Board in 2018. A teacher by profession and an African Union Trainer in peace support operations, Sylvie has extensive experience advocating for the political and social rights of women in Africa and worldwide.
In response to the takeover of Afghanistan by the Taliban and its targeted attacks on civil society members, WILPF Afghanistan issued several statements calling on the international community to stand in solidarity with Afghan people and ensure that their rights be upheld, including access to aid. The Section also published 100 Untold Stories of War and Peace, a compilation of true stories that highlight the effects of war and militarisation on the region.
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WILPF uses feminist analysis to argue that militarisation is a counter-productive and ill-conceived response to establishing security in the world. The more society becomes militarised, the more violence and injustice are likely to grow locally and worldwide.
Sixteen states are believed to have supplied weapons to Afghanistan from 2001 to 2020 with the US supplying 74 % of weapons, followed by Russia. Much of this equipment was left behind by the US military and is being used to inflate Taliban’s arsenal. WILPF is calling for better oversight on arms movement, for compensating affected Afghan people and for an end to all militarised systems.
Mobilising men and boys around feminist peace has been one way of deconstructing and redefining masculinities. WILPF shares a feminist analysis on the links between militarism, masculinities, peace and security. We explore opportunities for strengthening activists’ action to build equal partnerships among women and men for gender equality.
WILPF has been working on challenging the prevailing notion of masculinity based on men’s physical and social superiority to, and dominance of, women in Afghanistan. It recognizes that these notions are not representative of all Afghan men, contrary to the publicly prevailing notion.
In WILPF’s view, any process towards establishing peace that has not been partly designed by women remains deficient. Beyond bringing perspectives that encapsulate the views of half of the society and unlike the men only designed processes, women’s true and meaningful participation allows the situation to improve.
In Afghanistan, WILPF has been demanding that women occupy the front seats at the negotiating tables. The experience of the past 20 has shown that women’s presence produces more sustainable solutions when they are empowered and enabled to play a role.
